*** PHOTOBUCKET Is Now CHARGING For 3rd Party Hosting - $400 / yr ! ! !

[Shark Hunter]

Good work Sal.
I've fixed a few of mine.
This is going to be a long road.

[Tiddlerbasher]

I've registered accounts with Imgur and Flickr and uploaded my Photobucket crap to them. I'm checking out other 'Cloud' based storage for their third party 'hostage' rules

If I try and replace all my old Photobucket links I think I'll end up a few fries short of a happy meal. So if anyone wants any specific photos re-linked let me know and I'll do it.

[foakes]

Just been calmly considering this brilliant business move by PB for a couple of days now.

It is obvious that it is a move by a failing company to gain a little extra revenue for the short term -- while also getting rid of accounts that are costing them storage and bandwidth.

However, any company with integrity, would give users a 30 day notice of their policy changes.

Make no mistake -- this is nothing more that a "Shakedown".

Think of all of the folks active on ebay, others whose businesses are dependent on their stored photos, millions of forum sites like ours, and so many others -- who would actually consider, or have little choice, but to ante up $400 a year -- to stay relevant on the internet.

Let's just say that 1,000,000 folks decided to pay the ransom -- that would raise $400,000,000 that they do not have right now -- per year.  Plus, there is no refund when you pay the $400 annual fee -- so where will the folks be when PB tanks 8 months down the road, anyway?

This will make us wiser in the future -- and we should all open multiple accounts with other host providers such as flickr, IMGUR, or others -- to protect and spread out our options.

Eventually, we should consider having our own server and equipment -- because this is only the tip of the iceberg, IMO.

As to rebuilding past threads -- I have all of my pics downloaded on my computers.  However, the chore of repopulating 2529 pics on threads that are between 18 to 48 months old would take me not days or weeks -- but likely months.  Plus, maybe some of these threads are not so relevant anymore -- so my plan is to just remove the dead photo links -- close my PB account -- and start posting new threads as needed.

With a backlog of 82 repair jobs, 21 reels to build out for members, timber and firewood splitting of nearly 300 cords, family, household, and job responsibilities -- time must be weighed against possible benefits.

However, it isn't just about me -- all of us have full life plates.  And each of us will decide for ourselves how we want to handle this.

So, not a big deal -- once I made the decision to not be blackmailed by a flaky corporation.

What would be really nice -- if we blocked all PB images on our site -- and about 2,000,000 other sites did the same.  PB would quickly get a good payback for their blundering business decisions -- and would just become a smaller and smaller image in our rear view mirror -- as we move forward.  The nice advantage to PB of this action -- they would have a lot of bandwidth and storage space freed up.

If you replaced the "B" in photobucket with the 6th letter in our alphabet -- we would all understand this a little better.

Just my opinions.

Best,

Fred

[Midway Tommy]

Spreading photos over multiple accounts only sidesteps the inevitable for the time being. The only true way to protect AT photos out into the future is to figure out some way to adapt and adopt self storage right here at the site. Fortunately for them, ORCA did that a few years back as they could see what was eventually coming down the pipe. What a shame for all those that have spent hours upon hours trying to help others of the Ohana have an easier time finding information they need, and what a shame for those in need of information and examples that will no longer be available. I've never trusted outside storage of any kind, not even Clouds.    

[foakes]

Spreading photos over multiple accounts only sidesteps he inevitable for the time being. The only true way to protect AT photos out into the future is to figure out some way to adapt and adopt self storage right here at the site.   

That is exactly the point, Tommy --

The issue is to do something to protect our photos now -- until we get serious about our own system.

So having multiple storage hosting sites -- with backups on our computers -- will kind of give us a safety net until such time as we get storage and equipment we can actually be in charge of -- along with backups at least every few days. 

If we go this route, I and many others would certainly chip in a share to get it going and paid for.

I am not willing to spend the months needed to bring back my photos -- if this could and will happen again.

Plus, it may be time for housecleaning anyway.

This will be up to a lot of folks on our site to decide -- and it is being talked about now.

First step in any situation like this is triage -- second step is evaluation and recovery -- third step is implementing a plan for our future.

Stay tuned...we have good, solid folks on our site who are working on this now.

Best,

Fred

[mo65]

It is obvious that it is a move by a failing company to gain a little extra revenue for the short term -- while also getting rid of accounts that are costing them storage and bandwidth.

   Exactly, which is why I only downloaded copies of my pics and left them right there. I figure if I can clog a little of their bandwidth all the better, consider it a parting gift.

[ez2cdave]

If you replaced the "B" in photobucket with the 7th letter in our alphabet -- we would all understand this a little better.

Fred

Fred,

I think you meant the 6th letter, rather than the 7th letter . . . LOL !

Tight Lines !

[foakes]

You are right -- guess I can't count with my fingers very well!

Thanks Dave!

Now you all get the idea...

Best,

Fred

[Decker]

Guys,

I communicated about this with Alan.   We definitely have room for photos on alantani.com, so any member using PhotoBucket can upload their forum photos here, and correct the links.  Unfortunately, there is no way to do this wholesale.  Members will need to move their own photos and correct their own links.

Some guidelines for uploading photos to alantani.com:

• Please upload only photos to be used in postings, as opposed to all of your photos, or ones that won't be shared on the site.
• Please limit the file size of the photos to less than about 5 Mb (megabytes) or 5,000 K.  That resolution should be more than enough for the site.

I will try to start some other threads soon with more detailed instructions, as needed.  I don't use Photo Bucket myself, but maybe someone else can start a thread about how to download from there, or maybe its not necessary.  I'd like to put these threads on the  "Website Issues or Technical Problems with the Board":  http://alantani.com/index.php?board=114.0 

My time is limited, but I will try to stay on top of these discussions,

/Joe

[Midway Tommy]

Joe,

Do you know if there is a way to modify threads or posts, especially in tutorials, by being able to reinsert the same photo in between text lines if the photos are stored here at AT?

If so, could you or someone jot down detailed step by step instructions on the procedure? With this PB debacle I'm done storing any of my photos on an outside site. When I want to consolidate my photos from here on out I'll put them on a disc, chip or stick. Therefore, on any site or forum that requires 3rd party hosting, from this point on, won't be seeing any pics in any of my posts. Kind of a shame, but I've never really liked that 3rd party hosting process or procedure anyway.    

[Alto Mare]

Tom, i'm not that sharp with the computer and don't even know if I'm doing this righ, but will share how I do it.
I just got done replacing all the pics on this 14/0 thread: http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=6086.msg50954#msg50954
It takes a really long time to do so, maybe Joe or someone else has an easier way.
I opened an account with IMGUR, first think I did was to go to the thread that needed the pics reinstalled and hit the modify button, this will give you the pic number, without that number it will very hard to find.
I  downloaded those individually to my desktop backgroud from Photobucket.
I went back to Imgur and pressed "add image", I dragged the pic from my desktop the box and copied where it says BBCode.
Came back here and pasted it to replace the previous...lots of time and effort to get it done , they got us good.
I have many many more to go

Sal

[Shark Hunter]

I have all mine downloaded on my hard drive at work.
I still have one account that I can't remember the password to and they will not answer my emails.
All these pictures will be backed up on a flash drive, so I will be ready the next time someone drops the hammer.
I'm glad you rebuilt the 14/0 thread Sal.
That was the first one I went to, when the wrecking ball came through.
Daron

[johndtuttle]

Crapola, I gotta lot of work to do....

I paid for a "plus" account for the last few years because my tutorials need bandwidth....It was ~$3 a month or something but now they want $100 up front for the year...and who knows how long they will be around at this rate...

TBH the only "safe" way for alantani.com to go forward is to host the photos. Alan offered this to me in the past but it was just laziness on my part to not take advantage.

Now I have a ton a posts to fix...when a thread of yours has 66k views you feel like you gotta keep it alive.

My solution will be to download the photos, create a folder of just the images used in the threads, then upload that folder to my gallery here. That shouldn't take up too much space. Then in the future for just back up I will use flickr/imgur and abandon PB.

I advise getting on this "pronto" as PB could go belly up tomorrow (which was always the case I suppose).

[ez2cdave]

I have all mine downloaded on my hard drive at work.
I still have one account that I can't remember the password to and they will not answer my emails.
All these pictures will be backed up on a flash drive, so I will be ready the next time someone drops the hammer.
I'm glad you rebuilt the 14/0 thread Sal.
That was the first one I went to, when the wrecking ball came through.
Daron

Daron,

I absolutely NEVER used Photobucket for any STORAGE of my images.

The ONLY time I EVER uploaded anything to it was if a Forum required a URL link for images, rather than being able to upload them directly to the Forum website.

Tight Lines !

[Shark Hunter]

It used to be that way Dave.
The picture options we have now didn't exist back in 2012.